A blog about golf course and heathland management at Aldeburgh Golf Club and the wildlife found there. Aldeburgh GC is a top 100 championship course managed using traditional low input greenkeeping methods. It is situated on the Suffolk coast within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

We have sheep grazing the four fields north of the woodland at present. The fields are being managed under a stewardship agreement with the aim of restoring species-rich semi-natural grassland. The sheep are a mixture of Swaledales and North Country Mules (A cross between Swaledale and Blue Faced Leicester.) The Swaledales are the ones with the horns

The greens were top dressed this morning and for once the weather co-operated. We had a light breeze and a bit of sunshine to dry out the dressing before drag matting in, followed by rain to wash the dressing in further.

Keep an eye out for two of our greenkeepers; Danny Perring and Will Law if you're watching the PGA Championship this weekend. They're helping with bunker raking and will be with the final two groups playing on Saturday and the first two groups on Sunday

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Around 20 members joined Mike Swindells, a local ornithologist and bird ringer and Dave Thurlow of the RSPB for a wildlife walk around the course and wider estate this morning. Aldeburgh golf course is a haven for wildlife and over 30 species of bird were seen or heard during the walk. Highlights were the singing nightingales (5 or more), turtle dove and a stoat.
Many thanks to Mike and Dave, and also to Tony for providing an excellent breakfast in the clubhouse afterwards.

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Over the last two days the greens have been sprayed with wetting agent and a mixture of seaweed extract, iron and a small amount of nitrogen. The wetting agent helps us to manage the water in the soil so that it is evenly distributed throughout the soil profile. It helps the soil to dry evenly and reduces the amount of irrigation water required in drought conditions. The seaweed, iron and nitrogen act more as a tonic than a fertiliser, We apply between 1Kg and 2Kg/Ha of nitrogen to the greens, these rates are very low and encourage gentle growth rather than a strong flush.

We use a green dye to help us to spray accurately and efficiently - not to create that Augusta look! The dye will fade in a few days.

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

The Poa annua (Annual Meadow Grass) in the greens is flowering at present and this is having a negative impact on the smoothness and trueness of the putting surfaces. On most golf greens in the UK, Poa annua is the dominant grass species but at Aldeburgh we have a high percentage of fine Fescue and Bent grasses and aim to keep Poa annua out. This spring we have more Poa than we would normally have, due the the wet weather in 2012. Drying the greens out is one of main tools for stressing out Poa and favouring the fescue and in 2012 we didn't have any opportunities to do this.

This season we will be making the most of any rainless periods to dry out the greens, tipping the balance in favour of the finer grasses. However, over the next few weeks we will retain some moisture in the greens to enable the recently over-seeded Fescue to get established.

The cold spell that started in February and broke records in March continued through April. We've had a weather station since 2000 and this April was the coldest recorded, with an average temperature of 7.3 degrees. We also recorded our lowest April temperature at -4.4 on the 11th; the previous coldest was -1.9 in 2011. We only had 17.5mm of rainfall, less than half of the 37.6mm average for April. This has been the coldest spring for many years and growth is weeks behind what we would normally expect.